"Lest We Forget"

One of the things I love most about family history is the people I meet. Strangers become family overnight, and I feel a bond with them that I never would have expected. Last week, I received a gift from one such woman, Karen. She had found me from my Lime family history blog. We share the same Lime grandparents, five generations back for me and four generations back for her. I had shared a little information with her, most of it not as timely as it should have been, and she graciously shared her book with me.

Her book, "Lest We Forget: A History of the Angel/Evans and Lime/Sims Families", is a beautiful tribute to those that came before her. I've now had it for almost a week and ever since I received it I've found myself pulling it off my bookshelf daily to read and reread it.  It is the first family history book I've read specifically about my family. She did an amazing job weaving together the individual histories of our ancestor's lives with the history of the time and areas where they lived. She also included pictures and excerpts of many records and newspaper clippings that brought my ancestors to life. It was so well organized and engaging that I found myself lost in the pages and desiring to do the same thing for some of my other family lines.

Her book reminded me that our ancestor's narrative, is every bit as important as the records and pictures we find of them. Some of the records she mentioned and the stories she had told I had heard before, but to read in print the information that those records share and the insights we learn from them was fascinating and something I'm going to start developing as I move my family research forward.

I thank her for sending me such a treasure and look forward to referencing it often as I come to learn and understand more about my family.